M01921

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS A TOOL FOR REFRAMING ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE POSTMETHOD ERA

Joko Nurkamto Sebelas Maret University jokonurkamto@gmail.com

Abstract

Postmethod pedagogy makes it possible for teachers to move beyond the comfort zone, and to continuosly ponder how a method-based pedagogy helps learners develop their language. This is because there is no single best method of teaching which is appropriate for any situation (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). In addition, a pedagogical context itself requires language teachers to craft their teaching practice tailored to different groups of learners with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. With this in mind, language teachers should negotiate what works best for their learners. Consequently, they are challenged to have a solid understanding of different approaches and methods and translate these into practice. For this, Richards and Rodgers (2014) propose the use of personal practical knowledge (PPK), which involves teachers’ own teaching philosophy, teaching styles, and instructional strategies. To generate this personal practical knowledge, teachers can deploy reflective practice, which enables teachers to make sense of their own pedagogical practice in relation to value and impact (Ghaye, 2011). In this paper, I would like to elaborate the use of reflective practice as a tool for reframing ELT. Some important issues, which will be addressed, include (1) the meaning of reflective practice, (2) the importance of reflective practice in teaching, (3) the principles of reflective practice, (4) procedures for reflective practice, and (5) the model of reflective practice. By understanding these issues, language teachers are supposed to see reflective practice a powerful means of making sustained improvement in their pedagogical practice.

Key words: postmethod pedagogy, personal practical knowledge, reflective practice, and pedagogical practice

_______________

JOKO NURKAMTO has taught “Language Curriculum and Materials Development” and “Research Methodology in English Language Teaching” at the English Department of the Teacher Training and Education Faculty, University of Sebelas Maret Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. He received his Doctorate in English Education from Jakarta State University (Indonesia) in 2000, and got his professorship in 2004. His research interests include language curriculum development and teacher professional development.

English as an International Language: The changing Global Role of English Joseph Foley

Assumption University

Abstract

This paper will trace the re-conceptualization of the teaching of English from what was a dominant psycholinguistic perspective to a more socio-cultural perspective. Research over the past 30 or 40 years into English as an International language has identified a number of linguistic features that differ from British or American English. This is characterized by the element of variability, with speakers accommodating their language in order to make it more appropriate to the diverse interlocutors involved in the o u i atio . This alls i to uestio the p io itizi g of sta da d ati e E glish lexico-g a ati al a d p ag ati o s i e aluati g the o pete e of o - ati e lea e s. Communication using English in a global context is inherently more fluid, flexible, and dynamic, this implies not only that the language yardsticks need to be updated, but also that new approaches to language modeling are needed.

One consequence of these changes will involve current tests of English as they continue to focus na o l o ati e speake o s. De isio s of o side a le i po ta e i people s li es a e thus take on the basis of their ability to past tests such as TOEFL, TOIEC, IELTS or even the newest of these tests Pearson Test of English (Academic) based on the kinds of English that do not reflect the reality of

non-ati e use s la guage p a ti es.

At a very broad theoretical level, language teaching and assessment tend to regard the notion of communicative competence as the paradigm to follow. However, communicative competence should be empirically derived, that is to say what counts as effective communication should be based on observation of what people actually say and do. Language and communication are part of a wider mobilization of semiotic resources. Language starts to be seen not so much in terms of systems as in terms of practices, as something we do, not as an object in the curriculum but as an activity.

Finally, we need to re-thi k hat has ee o side ed as the ideal E glish la guage tea her. We need to re-consider how we learn to negotiate and accommodate rather than be proficient in one variety of English. So an emerging goal of education maybe less towards proficient native-speaker-like speakers and to think instead in terms of users who can draw on multiple linguistic and semiotic resources.

Skills for 21st Century : Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in The Malaysian Primary English Classroom

Juliana Othman

Faculty of Education, University Malaya

Abstract

Realizing the importance of meaningful learning and the pressing need to produce excellent human capitals who are good language users equipped with problem solving and thinking skills, the Malaysian Ministry of Education has introduced Primary School Standards-Based English Language Curriculum (SBELC) in 2011. Part of this curriculum reform involved the emphasis on critical and creative thinking skills as well as reasoning skills that are incorporated in the learning standards to enable pupils to solve simple problems, make decisions and express themselves creatively in simple language (Curriculum Development Division, 2011). This paper ill dis uss the pedagogi al i pli atio s of this e u i ulu o the tea he s ole, the

THE REPRESENTATION OF INDONESIAN CHILDREN WORLD IN PICTURE BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

Budi Hermawan, Didi Sukyadi, Ruswan Dallyono, Fuad Abdul Hamied

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

email: dsukyadi@upi.edu

ABSTRACT

In this information age, education settings are always represented multimodally, either using verbal, visual, spatial or aural modes. With this mind, literacy learning cannot rely one verbal mode per se, but all modes should be taken into account in every effort to develop young learners to be part of literate community. When representing meanings, textbook developers should consider how young learner worlds are represented multimodally. This study investigates how children’s world is represented verbally and visually in picture books for children, what are the semantic form of verbal-visual interface in representing the children’s world, and how visual mode constructs interpersonal meaning. This is a descriptive study which relies on reading images theory as developed by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996;2006), theory of how to read visual narrative in picture book (Painter, Martin and Unsworth, 2013), intersemiosis relation (Royce, 2002) to analyse the visual data. Verbal texts as data are analyzed using transitivity system of SFL as developed by Halliday (1994), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), and further developed by Martin, Matthiessen and Painter (1997), and Eggins (2004). Verbally the children’s world is mostly represented through the process of material, relational, mental dan verbal. Visually the children’s world is represented mostly through the use of warm and cool colours combination; it is borderless with that of the readers’, presented using bleed/unbound frame, close shot, and oblique perspective. The represented participants are people who may be socially close but not intimate, have equal social status with the readers, readers may bump into real life. Semantically visual projects the verbal and vice versa, visual illustrates the verbal and vice versa, what verbal says is retold by the visual vice versa, and verbal may tell different things but still parallel to the verbal and vice versa.

Birds of a feather : Idioms across languages, and implications for the learning and teaching of idioms and collocations in Southeast Asia

James McLellan

Universiti Brunei Darussalam james.mclellan@ubd.edu.bn

Abstract

Do learners of English across Southeast Asia need exposure to common fixed expressions (including idioms) used by first-la guage E glish speake s, su h as the o e i the fi st pa t of the title Enggang

sa a e gga g, pipit sa a pipit)? Is it useful to ask learners to draw on their knowledge of such expressions from the other languages known to them?

To address questions of idiomatic competence, unilateral idiomaticity and creative idiomaticity, this presentation draws on three textual corpora which have variable frequency of idiomatic expressions: Southeast Asians who meet at regional gatherings such as ASEAN or SEAMEO, where English is the language choice for formal speeches, tend to use few idiomatic expressions. But in a corpus of similar size consisting of business speeches made by New Zealanders to other New Zealanders idiom use is more frequent. A third corpus, written rather than spoken, comprising articles published recently in the

Journal of Asia TEFL and the EIL Journal, also has a low frequency of idioms. The corpus analysis is complemented by data from a survey of idiom awareness among a cohort of Brunei undergraduate students, and a group of teachers and government officers from across ASEAN.

The discussion and conclusion consider the pedagogical implications of research into idiom use and idiomaticity. In particular the presentation considers the possible benefits of comparing English idiomatic expressions with those of Southeast Asian languages, especially local vernaculars.

Keywords: collocations, idioms, idiomaticity, idiomatic competence, Asian lingua franca English,

Teaching communicative acts in the second language classroom: Insights from

research and pedagogical implications

Dr. Thi Thuy Minh Nguyen National Institute of Education

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract

A communicative act is an utterance, or set of utterances that speakers employ to perform a particular function in communication, for example, making requests, lodging complaints, giving compliments, responding with refusals, or sharing thoughts and opinions. The ability to

comprehend and produce contextually appropriate communicative acts in a second language is part of a non-native speaker’s communicative competence, and can be developed through carefully designed classroom instruction. In this presentation, I will review what research says are effective strategies for teaching communicative acts and showcase some useful classroom activities that have been empirically tested. Finally, I will discuss some critical issues relating to developing classroom materials for adequately teaching communicative acts in the English as a Foreign Language context.

SOME FRESHMEN’S DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING LISTENING

(A Cross-Sectional Survey Design Conducted at Freshman Level of English Education Program, a particular private University)

Lovi Dwi Lestari1); Delianti2); Riaswati3)

mawarlestari81@gmail.com1); delianti22@gmail.com2); riaswati2@yahoo.com3)

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the freshmen’s difficulties in learning listening course in a university level. The study was conducted toward EFL freshmen of English Education Program a particular private University who was selected purposively from a particular class which consisted of 10 students. The writers proposed two research questions: (1) Do the freshmen find out the difficulties in learning listening?(2) What are the freshmen’s difficulties in learning listening?To answer the research questions aforementioned, they employed a cross-sectional survey design at which they administered questionnaires to 10 respondents. The results for the fisrt research question showed that 90% of respondents said that they assumed that listening is not easy to be learnt. Moreover, the results for the second research question revealed that 80% of the respondents claimed that they have problems in vocabulary, pronunciation particularly in linking verb. In addition, 100% of respondents said that they have diffilcuties in speaking speed during listening the audio. In conclusion, the study reported that learning listening is not easy, and it is caused by the freshmen’s problems in vocabulary, pronunciation particularly in linking verb, and in speed during listening the audio.

Keywords: freshmens’ difficulties, learning listening INTRODUCTION

Listening is a basic skill which should be mastered by the students particularly freshmen level who learn English as a Foreign language (EFL). Learning listening course at university level is very difficult because they have to recognize sound of words, pronunciation, and English in context. Through learning and mastering those apsects, it may affect to their speaking skill, then to other skill such writing. Unfortunately, in fact many freshmen gain difficulties in learning listening course beacuse they have problems in vocabulary, pronunciation, speaking speed, and uncommon activity in listening spoken English.

To solve the problems aforementioned, the freshmen have to enhance their practice in learning listening. They often need to practice although only in a short time in a day because a little practice every day is very valuable then a lot of practice concentered in a short time (Sharpe, 2005) as quated by Hidayat (2014, p. 84). Through that way, it is expected to minimize their problems in mastering listening skill. Besides, the teacher should apply a proper strategy or technique implemented in the classroom when teaches listening to the students.

This present study is also underpinned by some relevant previous studies. The first study was carried out by Ma (2009),investigating an empirical study on teaching listening in CLT. The second study was undertaken by Hidayat (2014), investigating some sophormores’ difficulties in mastering English listening comprehension.” Finally, the last study was done by Bozorgland &

Pillay (2013), investigating foreign language learning through listening strategies delivered in L1.

Regarding to the three previous studies above, the first and third previous studies are dissimilar, meanwhile, the second study is similar to the present study. In addition, the writersaddress two research questions: (1) Do the freshmen find out the difficulties in learning listening?(2) What are the freshmen’s difficulties in learning listening?In relation to the answers of these research questions, those are going to be discussed in discussion session of this study.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The definition freshmen’s difficulties

To begin with, the writers higlight the term ‘freshmen’s difficulties’. ɒased on Arlington’s (1891, p. 2); Bruce’s et al., (2001, p. 689); and Sue and Vicky’s (2010) definitions, those can be elaborated that freshmen’s difficulties is the term which relates to the mental condition at which the students in first-year of college or university level found a particular case concerning with their lesson at school. In relation to the present study, freshmen’s difficulties is a condition at which the students gain difficulties or problems during their learning, particularly for freshmen level in English education program.

Defining listening

After discussing the term freshmen’s difficulties, the writers then discuss‘listening’. According to Devine (1982) as quoted by Hamouda (2013, p. 114); An ILA Definitions of listening (1995) as quoted by Wolvin (2010, p. 9), the definitions can be elaborated that listening is the crusial skill which involves a process of transfering verbal information to be understood, then responded into verbal messages and action.

Listening approaches

After discussing the term ‘listening’, the writersdelineate an approaches in learning listening.In learning listening, there are two approaches within teaching and learning listening in and outside calssroom. Wilson (2008, p. 15) highlights bottom-up and top-down approaches as follows:

1. Bottom-up approach

This approach emphasizes the decoding of the smallest units-phonemes and syllables, besides leading the listeners towards meaning.

2. Top-down approach

This approach emphasizes the use of background knowledge to predict content. This approach is based on discrete units of language in the text. It means that it refers to knowledge of the speaker context or analogy.

In relation to the present study, the freshmen level who learn in English education program are taught by their listening lecturer through the bottom-up approach. The use of the bottom-up approach in teaching listening for freshmen level, because the freshmen are the first-year students who learn basic listening at university level. The thematic course for basic listening cover how to differentiate of phonemes’ sounds, syllables’ sounds, and words’ sounds. Futhermore, the top-down approach is used by the English lecturer to teach freshmen in intermediate listening course. (listening syllabus for freshmen level, English education program, Galuh University, 2010).

METHODS Research Design

In this present study, the writers apply a cross-sectional survey design because theycollect the data which only take in a short time (Creswell, 2012, p. 377). Thus, the writers decide to apply a cross-sectional survey design because they are able to gain the data in a short time.

Participants and Research Site

In this present study, the writers selected 10 from 22 EFL freshmen as the respondents in a particular class from English Education Program, a private University, in Ciamis. The reason for selecting them, because in freshmen level, the students normally find out the difficulties in learning listening. Thus, the writers need to investigate their difficulties during learning listening course as the reference to give them the suggestion as the solutions. As previously mentioned, the research site of this present study was taken place in a particular private University located in Ciamis regency, particularly in an English education program. This private university was selected because the writers are students where they are learning nowadays.

Data Collection Procedure

The data were obtained by administering questionnaires to 10 from 22 respondents which are selected purposively from a particular class. The questionnaires consisted of 7 questions to be answered by the respondents. The time for answering the questionnaires is when they have leisure and they need to answer the questionnaires during 15 minutes. Then, the questionnaires were collected by the writers after the respondents answered the whole questions.

Data Analysis

After collecting the data, the writers analyzed the whole answers qualitatively. However, quantification is also used to describe the data in percentage.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION F indings

In interpreting the data, the writers analyzed all answers written by the 10 freshmen as the respondents. According to the answers, the writers summarize and presented them in percentage in the following table:

No. Statements Responses

SA A N D SD

1. I realize that listening is an important course.

30% 70% - - -

2. Listening is gratifying activity to be learnt. 10% 50% 30% 10% - 3. I find it out that learning listening is not easy. 10% 80% 10% - - 4. I have difficulties in vocabulary, and pronunciation

particularly in linking verb. 20% 60% 10% - 10%

5. I have difficulties in speaking speed during listening

the audio. 20% 80% - - -

Note:

SA : Strongly Agree

A : Agree

N : Neither Agree nor Disagree

D : Disagree

(Suggested by Dornyei & Taguchi, 2010, pp. 20-37).

Based on the data in relation to the difficulties in learning listening faced by the freshmen aforementioned, the writers explain each statement as follow.

Statement no. 1 shows that all of the respondents realize; listening is an important course. They know that listening plays an essential role in English. That is in line with the proof that there is not respondent who answers ‘Neither ɑgree nor Disagree’, ‘Disagree’, and ‘Strongly Disagree’. Meanwhile, statement no. 2 points out that a half of the respondents regard that listening is gratifying activity to be learnt. Statement no. 3 draws that more than a half of the respondents regard, learning listening is not easy. Most of the students or the respondents agree that they feel difficult in learning listening. Then, Statement no. 4 shows that most of them face difficulties in learning vocabulary, and pronunciation particularly in linking verb. Finally, statement no. 5 shows that most of them feel difficulties in speaking speed. They have difficulties in speaking speed during listening the audio.

Based on the data aforementioned, those can be concluded that the most of freshmen realize that listening is an important course, but it is gratifying activity to be learnt. In fact, they face some difficulties in learning listening, such as: having difficulties in vocabulary, and pronunciation particularly in linking verb.

Besides, the writers also add 2 additional questions to the respondents in order to strengthen the data. Those questions are numbered by 6 and 7 as follow:

Question no. 6 is “Is there any other difficulties that you face in learning listening except some points aforementioned? If yes, please mentioned it!” ɑccording to the answers, 80% of the respondents answered No, there is not.Meanwhile, there are 2 respondents (20%) who have the other difficulties in learning listening except some points on the table. One of them said, “Yes, I think there is some difficulties in lerning listening such as the audio that not clearly and the situation which not suitable for learning listening such as in the classroom that is so noisy.” It means that she experiences a difficulty in learning listening if there are many audios that are not clear and she will be more comfortable to learn if the situation is in the condusive classroom. In the other hands, another respondent answers, “Yes, I little bit have difficulties in listen what the word that native speaker says.” It means that she does not recognize or understand word by word if the native speaker says within the audio listened.

Question no. 7 is “Do you think that bottom-up and top-down approaches could improve your listening comprehension? Please mention it!” Regarding to the second additional question, the writers need to present the respondents’ answers below:

R1 : “Yes, because bottom-up technique/approaches is the basic technique of listening. Thus, we have to learn it well and top-down as well. If we have mastered those approaches automatically we could learn listening aesily.”

R2 : “Yes, it can be improve my listening comprehension because those are the basic technique

of listening.”

R3 : “Yeah, I think it’s getting help.”

R4 : “Yes, because with those method I can learn listening better than before, such as listen the audio and write what the audio says.”

R5 : “Yes, I do. Because bottom-up and top-down approaches are the proper technique to enhance my listening comprehension, particularly when I am a freshman who haven’t learnt listening before.”

R6 : “Yes, I do.”

R7 : “Yes, because we often heard the audio, so we can improve our listening comprehenssion

.”

R8 : “Yes, I do. Because I got a knowledge, I found many vocabularies, my tenses and my pronunciation too.”

R9 : “Yes I do, but not any more. I need the isteresting method to study some lesson that I felt difficult for me, and about bottom-up and top-down approaches I think that methods are not too interest for me. So I can’t follow the lecturer well.”

R10 : “No, I don’t”

Note: the answers above are originally quoted from the respondents’ statements.

Dealing with the data above, those can be concluded that the difficulties faced by the freshmen are categorized as a sufficient complicated. Besides, thestatements on the table assert the additional comments dealing with freshmen’s difficulties such as: the audio that not clearly and the situation which not suitable for learning listening in the classroom that is so noisy and one of the respondents has difficulties in listening what the word pronounced by the native speaker.

Discussion

After highlighting the results of the present study, the writers then answer the research questions addressed. The answers are as follow:

Research question 1: Do the freshmen find out the difficulties in learning listening?

Dealing with the research question addressed, the answer is based on the results gained in the findings. Thus, the first research question can be answered that the most of the respondents find out the difficulties in learning listening. This answer is proved with the evidences taken from the answers from the statement no. 3 in questionniare which states that 80% of the respondents agree that learning listening is not easy. From theses evidences, explicitly, the answer for the first research question is: Yes, they do, because the freshmen get the difficulties such in the area vocabulary, pronunciation particularly in linking verb, speaking speed, and uncommon activity in listening spoken English.

Research question 2: What are the freshmen’s difficulties in learning listening?

Dealing with the second research question, the answer is based on the results gained in the findings taken from statements number 3 , 4 and 5. To strengthen the data, the writers also take the question number 6. Generally, the answers from those numbers reveal that the respondents find out that first listening is not easy. Second, they have difficulties in vocabulary, and pronunciation particularly in linking verb. Third, having difficulties in speaking speed during listening the audio. The last, the audio that not clearly and the situation which not suitable for learning listening in the classroom that is so noisy and one of the respondents has difficulties in listening what the word pronounced by the native speaker.From those evidences, explicitly the answer of the second research question is: the freshmen gain the difficulties in vocabulary, pronunciation, and speaking speed.

After answering the research questions above, those can be inferred that learning listening is difficult for the freshmen. Besides, those difficulties cover difficulties in vocabulary, pronunciation, and speaking speed. Thus, to overcome those difficulties, teacher has to be creative to apply the proper teaching strategy, meanwhile the freshmen have to learn listening through having maximalspirit and good learning style.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

.With regard to the results and discussion of this study, it can be concluded that students at university level particularly freshmen find out several difficulties in learning listening. Furthermore, the difficulties cover three aspects: difficulties in vocabulary, difficulties in pronunciation particularly in linking verb, and uncommon in listening spoken English, besides getting difficulties in speaking speed during listening the audio.

Moreover, the writers suggest the freshmen to have more practices both in and outside of the classroom. In addition, the teacher is also suggested to be more creative in applying a certain teaching strategy during teaching the students.

REFERENCES

Arlington, (1891). The Cambridge Tribune. Journal of Cambridge Publik Library, 13(48). Retrieved on August 3rd , 2014, from:http://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/cgi-bin/cambridge?a=d&d=Tribune18910207-01.1.2&e=---en-20--1--txt-IN---.

Bozorgian, H., & Pillay, H . (2013). Enhancing Foreign Language Learning through Listening Strategies Delivered in L1: an Experimental Study. International Journal from Intruction e-ISSN, 6(1), 105-122. Retrieved on June 13th, 2014, from:http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED539838.pdf.

Bruce, M. G. et al. (2001). Risk Factors Meningococcal Disease in College Students. The Journal of American Medically Assosia tion, 286(6). Retrieved on August 3rd , 2014, from:http://jamanetwork.com/solr/searchresults.aspx?q=Risk%20Factors%20for%20M eningococcal%20Disease%20in%20College%20Students%29&allJournals=1&SearchS ourceType=1

Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (4th Edition). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Dornyei, Z., & Taguchi, T. (2010). Questionnaires in Second Language Research:

Construction, Administration, and Processing (2nd Edition). New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis.

Fraenkel, J., Wallen, N., & Hyun, H. (2012). How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (8thEdition). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Hamouda, A. (2013). An Investigation of Listening Comprehension Problems Encountered by Saudi Students in the EL Listening Classroom. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 2(2). Retrieved on July 15th , 2014, from:http://www.hrmars.com/admin/pics/1882.pdf.

Hidayat, Y. (2014). Some Sophormores’ Difficulties in Mastering English Listening Comprehension (A Survey Study Conducted at English Education Program of Galuh University) .Journal of EFL Apllied Linguistics, 1(1), 80-85. Ciamis: English Education Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Sciences Galuh University.

English Education Program. (2013). Syllabus Listening for Spesific Purpose. Ciamis: English Education Program Study, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Sciences, Galuh University.

Ma, T. (2009). An Empirical Study on Teaching Listening in CLT. International Education Studies, 2(2) 126-134. Retrieved on June 13th, 2014, from:http://www.ccsenet.org/Journal/index.php/ies/article/viewFile/1708/1645.

Sue, A., & Vicky, R. (2010). Aspects of Learning in a Mental Health Setting. Sosial Care for Exellence, 14(2) 35-42. Retrieved on July 16th ,2014, from:http://beta.scie-

socialcareonline.org.uk/aspects-of-learning-in-a-mental-health-setting/r/a1CG0000000GZuUMAW.

Wilson, J. J. (2008). How to Teach Listening. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Wolvin, D. A. (2010). Listening and Human Communication in the 21st Century. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

A SOCIO-COGNITIVE ANALYSIS ON A NEWS ARTICLE ON MEDIA FREEDOM

Ani Fiani1); EndangSetyaningsih2)

annie_fiani@yahoo.com1); aningsetya@yahoo.com2)

Abstract

This article presents an approach to study semantic macrostructures and micro structures in a discourse, using Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive framework of analysis. Analysis of macro and micro structures are used to reveal the reasons/ motives/ hidden agenda which underlie the semiotic choices made by speaker/ writer. Semantic macrostructure refers to the theme/ topic of the discourse and micro structure refers to the ‘loaded’ word/ phrase/ clause chosen by the participant representing his/ her identity, role, relationship, goal, knowledge, and ideology; used in the on ongoing social action, and interpreted in relation to its time and place of use (context model). The inference of macro structure and interpretation of micro structure and its context model are exemplified using a text from The ɛakarta Post entitled “ɛokowi Urged to Explicitly Spell Out Papua’s Media Freedom”. From the sample, it is learned that words are selected by the speaker based on the intention and reflect power and role of the speaker. These words eventually form macrostructure of the text.

Keywords: context model, microstructure, news, semantic macrostructure, socio-cognitive

INTRODUCTION

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies important social problems and political issues. CDA views discourse as ‘social practice’ (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997, p.258), that is interested in the relations between language and society. The relationship between language and society can be described, interpreted and explained through studying and analyzing spoken and written texts. CDA primarily aims to ‘critically analyze those who are in power, those who are responsible, and those who have means and the opportunity to deal with social problems’ (van Dijk, 1986, p.4), such as discrimination, power abuse, social injustice, manipulation, which are especially caused by public texts or talks.

In studying social problems, van Dijk develops sociocognitive approach or the framework of the discourse–cognition–society triangle which may mean the relations between mind, discursive interaction and society (van Dijk in Wodak and Meyer, 2009) or the relevant (local and global) context of dicourse (p.65) which mediated by context model. It is ‘definition of situation’ that conntrols the adequate adaptation of discourse production and comprehension to their social environment (p.66). This approach examines the way cognitive phenomena (mental representations and the process of language users) are related to the structures of discourses, verbal interaction, communicative events and situations, as well as social structures (van Dijk in Wodak and Meyer,2009).

The explanation of social structure needs macro and micro analysis of a society which involves social group and their interaction. Macrostructures focuses on a study of global meanings, topics or themes (what discourses are (globally) about). Discursively, the topics and themes are characteristically expressed in titles, abstracts, summaries and announcements (p.68). Whereas, micro structures focus on local meanings such as the meaning of words. Local meanings refers to ‘a function of the selection made by speakers/writers in their mental models of events or their more general knowledge and ideologies and actually under the overall control of global topics or themes.

Based on the explanation above, the macrostructures and interpretation of microstructure and its context model will be applied or examplified using a text from The Jakarta Post–Thursday, May β8 β015, entitled “ɛokowi Urged to Explicitly Spell Out Papua’s Media Freedom”.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Approach

Socio-cognitive approach is a major strand in critical discourse analysis (CDA). The main proponent if this approach is TeeunVan Dijk who prefers the term Critical Discourse Study (CDS) to CDA. Van Dijk (2009, p. 64; 2008a), noted that socio-cognitive approach is a framework to formulate and illustrate some of the principles he tries to observe when doing CDS.

Further Van Dijk (2009) mentioned that the approach emphasizes the study of cognition in critical analysis of discourse, communication, and interaction. This means, the approach also addresses mental representations, the processes of language users when they are communicating and interacting (including their knowledge and ideologies). It also means that the study touches the structure of discourse and communicative events/ situations. In a nutshell, as the name suggests, socio-cognitive approach has three important intertwined dimensions: discourse, cognition, and society.

ɑs a strand in CDɑ (or CDS in Van Dijk’s term) analysis using socio-cognitive approach aims at uncovering/ demystifying, exposing and combating social unjust such as power abuse and domination. It is therefore a study which is problem-based instead of discipline-based and thus should be carried out in collaboration with the ‘oppressed’ group/ society (Van Dijk, 2009, p.63)

Socio-cognitive approach, just like another approach in CDA, also faced harsh criticism especially on its validity, credibility, and fairness for at least two reasons. First, the criterion for judging what’s unjust or illegitimate is based on internationally recognized human being (Van Dijk, 2009, p. 63). This may mean the analyst is using goggles that perhaps does not fit the accepted local wisdom, or may eventually eliminating/ changing culture or custom of a society which is viewed as ‘bad’ into a new custom/ culture which is ‘good’ in the perspective of the analyst.

Second, the interpretation of the data including in socio-cognitive approach relies heavily on the analyst. Although references and theoretical basis for analysis and interpretation are well addressed and data are scientifically taken, the interpretation itself is mainly by analyst and this may raise question on its validity and credibility. In addition, each analyst may develop different framework and integrates multiple disciplines for analysis (CDA is multi-discipline) and this framework/ approach and discipline may change over the years. However; Wodak and Meyer (2009, p.5) mentioned that regardless the confusion of the school, CDɑ “allows continuous debates, for changes in the aims and goals, and for innovation” and thus making it an ‘open school’.

Analyzing Semantic Macrostructure

Van Dijk (2009) recommends researcher to firstly look at macrostructure of the text. Macrostructure refers to the topic or theme of the discourse being studied. It expresses the overall content and represents meaning or information most readers will memorize best about the discourse (p.68).

In a simple way, to identify the macrostructure of a discourse, e.g. written discourse is like identifying the topic or theme of a reading text. Analyst should look for sentence(s) that convey the overall ideas of the text. This can be usually done by identifying main idea sentence, studying the title or by looking at frequently mentioned word(s).

Analyzing Micro structure

While macrostructure refers to the global meaning of a discourse, microstructure deals with the micro aspect of a discourse. The micro aspect includes e.g. local meaning (word meaning) and structure of a discourse. In looking at macrostructure, analyst is doing top down analysis, while in looking at microstructure, analyst is doing bottom up analysis. Words and structures are studied to uncover their meaning, intention, and ideology behind them. As mentioned by Van Dijk (2009, p.70) CDS is interested in analyzing many forms of implicit or indirect meaning such as vagueness, allusion, etc.

In a discourse, choice of structure and words are viewed to carry certain intention and they reflect the user’s (can be individual or group) role, power, and ideology. These choices of micro element in a discourse then build the macro structure of a discourse. In a reverse angle, when the intention is set, the user of language will select (no matter how automatically the selection is) the micro elements (e.g. word, structure) to deliver the intention. To the reader (if the discourse is written), all of these may appear very subtle and it is the work of CDS analyst to expose the subtle ‘intention’ of the text author.

To interpret the micro structure using socio-cognitive approach, analyst could turn to context model. Context model is the cognitive device that serves as mediating bridge between discourse and society. Context model are organized by simple schema consisting categories such as spatiotemporal setting, participants (identities, roles, relationships goal, knowledge, ideologies), and ongoing social action.

By studying the micro element in the frame of context model, analyst will be able to determine the appropriateness of an utterance in regards to the categories (e.g. who said it, in what situation). It is also possible to spot power relation among the participants (e.g. who said what, to whom, in what capacity) and detect abuse of power or other form of social unjust (e.g. is there strong threatening/ intimidating words, or is there effort to soften/ excuse effect of power abuse).

Introduction of Sample Text

Title of the sample text used in this study is ‘ɛokowi urged to explicitly spell out Papua’s media freedom’. This sample text was taken from the Jakarta Post published on Thursday, May 28 2015. This text discusses about Human Right Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director Phelim ɜane’s comments in response to two of ɛokowi’s Cabinet Ministers’ statements, Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno (Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister) and Ryamizard Ryacudu (Defense minister) which resisted the President’s promise to lift restrictions on foreign Journalists covering Papua.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Detail study on sample text Macrostructure

Macrostructure or theme of the text is identified as M. There is one M in the text that covers the point of view of ɜine in responding the statements on Papua’s media freedom. M1: ɛokowi urged to explicitly spell out Papua’s media freedom in response to contradictive statements by two ɛokowi’s ministers

Microstructure

Microstructure deals with the use of words/ phrases that carries intention and reflects the power of the users. It also deals with whether the words/ phrases are appropriate based on the context. The authors select 12 words/ phrases from the text to be analyzed. The words/ phrases are presented in the table which also displays the context model. Interpretation is presented after each words/ phrases.

No. Words/ phrases Participant Place Time Social Action

1 Contradict Kine N/A Thursday Newspaper

Interview 2 Willful ignorance or

outright hostility

Kine N/A

3 Doom Kine N/A

4 Obstructionisms Kine N/A

5 Head on Kine N/A

6 Monitor/ monitoring Tedjo quoted by Kine

N/A May, 26—two weeks after ɛokowi’s signal to Papua’s media freedom

7 Snooping Kine N/A Thursday

8 ɑren’t spying Tedjo quoted

by Kine

N/A May, 26—two weeks after ɛokowi’s signal to Papua’s media freedom

9 Sedition Kine N/A Thursday

10 Expel Rymizard

quoted by Kine

N/A May, 26—two weeks after ɛokowi’s signal to Papua’s media freedom

11 Held hostage Kine N/A Thursday

12 Truth remained hidden

Kine N/A

Interpretation Contradict

In a newspaper interview, Kine as Human Right Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director used the word ‘contradict’ to describe the opposition view of two ɛokowi’s Ministers after Jokowi promised to lift restrictions on foreign journalists covering Papua. This word was chosen by Kine on Thursday in an unapropriate way. This word has negative meaning that two ɛokowi’s Ministers strongly disagree to the president’s statement. ɒut actually this case is two ɛokowi’s Ministers suggest to monitor foreign journalists’ activities.

Willful ignorance or outlight hostility

‘Willful ignorance or outlight hostility’ is uttered by ɜine on Thursday. He used this phrase to point out two ɛokowi’s Minister, Purdijatno and Ryacudu as key ministers. This option is an unappropriate way because has negative meaning. This phrase indicates that Kine dislike to the statements of two ɛokowi’s Ministers.

Doom

In an newspaper interview, ɜine used the word ‘doom’ to describe President’s plan if the president does not discuss the obstacles of Papua’s media freedom with his two key ministers, Purdijatno and Ryacudu. this word is used in appropriate way because Kine is as Human Rights Watch (HRW) director who strongly agrees with the president’s promise to lift restrictions on foreign journalists.

Obstructionism

Obstractionism is uttered by Kine. This word is to describe the obstacles of the president’s plan to lift restrictions on foreign journalists covering Papua. This option is used to describe that those obstacles should be clear as soon as possible because Kine hopes President realises that plan in the near time.

‘Head-on’ is uttered by ɜine. This option is chosen by ɜine to describe that the president should discuss together with his two key ministers about the obstructionism or obstacles of Papua’s media freedom plan and his Ministers’ statements who strongly disagree with his promise. ɜine’s intention is to urge ɛokowi to explicitly spell out that media freedom.

Monitor

In an interview, minister Tedjo used the word ‘monitor’ (as quoted by ɜine) to describe what the government do to the journalist. This option is appropriate IF it is related to Tedjo’s role and position i.e. government representative. This option ‘positive-fy’ the government’s act. This word; however, is viewed as an euphemism for his counterpart. This will become clear in the next chosen word for analysis.

Snooping

‘Snooping’ is uttered by ɜine. ɒy its tone/ effect, this word contradicts the word ‘monitor’ used by minister Tedjo. ɑlthough the two words more or less refer to the same activity (seeing, looking, observing), they carry different meaning. Snooping is more negative while monitoring is more positive. Snooping carries the meaning of spying, without permission, illegal, and is related to crime. Meanwhile, monitor carries the meaning of watching, caring, ensuring things are in order. With such weighted meanings, it is quite logical that they are uttered by two opposing parties.

Aren’t spying

‘ɑren’t spying’ is uttered by minister Tedjo. ɑppearing after the word ‘monitor’, ‘aren’t spying’ shows defensive statement from the minister. It indicates that the minister is aware of the possibility of the word ‘monitor’ to be criticized and to be said as ‘word of the party with power’ and thus he precautious tries to explicitly ensure the opposing parties that they are not spying (or snooping in ɜine’s word).

‘Good news’ and ‘Sedition’

This word is used by ministerRymizardRyacudu to describe negative reports on Papua. Using this word, the minister is using his authoritative power to label the report as sedition, a serious crime that can send a person i.e. journalist to prison. This is thus an intimidating and threatening act by the minister, forcing journalist to present only ‘good news’ which is not clearly defined by the minister. For journalist, there is a famous idiom: bad news is good news; it means that bad incident usually attracts readers’ attention/ curiosity and thus worth reporting. When the minister said “…produce ‘good news’”, the minister ‘good news’ does not seem to be similar with the journalist’ good news. Good news for the minister means positive report because he labels negative report as sedition. While for journalists, good news can be either positive or negative; depends on the ‘newsworthiness’ of an event/ condition. In this case, the use of the word ‘sedition’ exposes the minister power and his ability to use his power to threat other parties. ɑnd the word ‘good news’ although mentioned by ɜine as vague, it is actually clear that it means pleasing news (for the governments’ side)

Expel

The word is uttered by ministerRymizardRyacudu and is quoted by Kine. Regardless whether Kine accurately quoted the word or not, the word illustrates the power of the user, i.e. the minister. ‘Expel’ is easily linked to power. The user has a degree of confidence and

awareness of power of the user so that s/he can ‘expel’ other parties when required. The word clearly shows use of power in way that is abusive.

Held hostage

‘Held hostage’ is another strong phrase from ɜine. Use of strong words is typical decision commonly made by activists, including Kine. This indicates that Kine is fighting the power of the ministers and showing that he is not ‘under’ the power (control) of the government. The phrase is a metaphoric expression to describe that the journalist are not given their basic right i.e. freedom. The ‘negative’ words are means to justify and reinforce that something is not right; that the ideal condition is freedom. It also ensures readers that the government has power and they abuse the power over the ‘weak’ i.e. journalists.

Truth remained hidden

The words represent ɜine’s view over the government’s ‘bad deed’. Ideally, truth is not and shall not be hidden. The sentence again showing that ɜine’s power is used to against ministers’ power. This is done by explicitly accusing the government for doing bad deed ; against the ideal. The use of the word ‘remained’ indicates maintenance of a current situation. It shows that the event/ condition has been as it is. In this case, Kine accuses the government on doing something bad and at once telling that the ‘bad deed’ has been going on since before the surgery.

CONCLUSION

This paper has examined the macrostructures and the interpretation of microstructure and its context model by examplifying a news article on media freedom that was taken from the Jakarta Post published on Thursday, May 28 2015. Based on the analysis, the sample text indicate the construction of socio-political ideologies. These ideologies are shown through language or selected words/phrases when the participants comment or respon the President’s premise to lift restrictions on foreign journalists in Papua to achieve their purposes.In other words, the selection words are based on the speaker’s intention and they reflect power and role of the speaker. These results are in line with Wodak’s statement (β01β) that language choices, social identity or status is manifested through ideology. Therefore, the selected words form macrostructure of the text.

REFERENCES

Fairclough, N., and Wodak, R. 1997. Critical Discourse Ana lysis.Discourse as Social Interaction, in Van Dijk (Ed.), 258-284. London: Sage.

Van Dijk, T.A. 1986. Racism and the press. London: Arnold.

Van Dijk, T.A. 2008a. Discourse and Context. A Sociocognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.

Van Dijk, T.A. 2009. Society and Discourse: How context controls text and talk. Cambridge University Press.

Wodak, R. 2012. Language, power, and identity. Journal of Language Teaching, 45, pp. 215-233.

Wodak, R., and Meyer, M. 2009. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage Publication Ltd.

THE ANALYSIS OF METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS AND POST LISTENING FEEDBACK ON EFL LISTENING ACTIVITIES

Dodi Mulyadi

dodi_mulyadi_english@yahoo.com; dodi@unimus.ac.id

Abstract

Listening is a critical component of effective communication and commonly regarded as the difficult skill by foreign language learners. Mostly, they find it difficult in understanding listening materials. They are still unable to comprehend or to understand the spoken words or phrases in the English. Thus, there are many factors affecting listening ability in mastering language. Metacognitive Awareness and Post Listening Feedback are used to find out the factors relating to students’ strategy use and their obstacles that they have experienced in comprehending spoken language. The research was designed quantitatively. The instruments for collecting data were Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) and a questionnaire of post listening feedback sheet. Participants of the study were fourteen English Education students at Univesitas Muhammadiyah Semarang in academic year 2015/2016. The findings indicated that the difficulties confronted by the learners are recognizing sounds, recognizing words, guessing word meaning, recognizing grammar patterns, working out what the speaker’s means. In addition, the reliability coefficient of MɑLQ calculated in this study was 0.79 with students’ metacognitve awareness comprising Problem solving with 4.4, Planning and evaluation with 3.70, Directed attention with 3.70, Directed attention with 3.0, Person knowledge with 2.60. It can be concluded that the results can simply help instructors to find out the appropriate strategies and draw their attention to various information from students’ difficulties to help their students increase their listening ability to comprehend spoken English.

Keywords: metacognitive awareness, post listening feedback, and EFL listening activities

INTRODUCTION

In a language classroom, listening ability plays a essential role in the development of other language skills (Ratebi and Amirian 2013). However, there is still plenty of evidence that listening is underrated in teaching Language. When there is a stress on contact hours, frequently listening session is declined. Learners are infrequently assessed on their listening skills, and the problems of many poor listeners pass undiagnosed. The methodology of the listening lesson has been little discussed, researched or challenged; and there is a tendency for teachers to work through well-worn routines without entire conviction. Thus, a faddy commitment to an ‘integrated skills’ approach as an alternative way may result in listening being consigned to a quick topic-driven session packed between reading and writing, which tend to be considered as more tractable and controllable skills (Field, 2008: 1).

Most people perceive that listening is difficult skill in teaching EFL because it is widely seen as a ‘passive’ skill (Field, β008). Listening is commonly regarded as the difficult skills by language learners. Most learners attribute their difficulties of listening comprehension because they perceive as their low listening ability or difficult listening texts or tasks. Thus, many students are still unable to comprehend or understand the spoken word or phrase in the English language verbally by his interlocutor. Many attempts have been made by the lecturer of the Listening course in the learning process so that students learn easily in this course. But the result is still no significant change in their Listening Comprehension.

Learning Listening Comprehension is not easy but in general most of the many students who ignore it. It is a fact that still occurs from year to year in the world of education, especially for university students. Besides learning styles students are also very decisive in the success of learning. However, of the many problems faced by students in learning Listening Comprehension, there must be a right way or a solution to solve these problems. Therefore, there are many factors affecting listening ability in mastering language. Metacognitive Awareness and Post Listening Feedback are used to find out the factors relating to students’ strategy use and their obstacles that they have experienced in comprehending spoken language

The objectives of the study are to describe students’ metacognitive awareness of listening strategies and their difficulties in listening activities in order to help them to solve academic listening problems and guide them to strengthen their listening ability.

LITERATURE REVIEW The nature of listening

Listening skill is a passive activity which is a complex, active process for listeners to discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intonation. It also reserves what was gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance. Coordinating all of this involves a great deal of mental activity on the part of the listener (Vandergrift, 1999). Thus, listening comprehension is a highly integrative skill. It refers to the hard work activity that needs more analysis and support. Thus, listening comprehension plays important role in mastering language. It can facilitate the emergence of other language skills. For these reasons, an awareness and deployment of effective listening comprehension strategies can help students capitalize on the language input they are receiving.

Schultz ( 2003) uses the term listening more than just hearing. He suggests how teachers or lecturers attend to individuals, the classroom as a group, the broader social context, and, cutting across all of these, to silence and acts of silencing. They listen for the individual voices and gestures in their classrooms; they also listen for the heartbeat or tenor of the group. Listening in pedagogical perspective refers to the knowledge of who the learner is and the understandings that both the teacher and learner bring to a situation constitute the starting place for teaching.

Listening has a greater importance in foreign language classrooms. In mastering language, the role of comprehensible input play pivotal role dealing with second language acquisition research that has given a major boost to listening (Dirven 1993).

Metacognitive Listening Strategy

Metacognition is defined as a construct having to do with thinking about one’s thinking or the human ability to be conscious of one’s mental processes (Nelson in Rahimi & Katal, 2012). They also state that successful learners are aware of their learning process and the use of different strategies that meet the requirements of different learning tasks and situations. Therefore, Metacognitive strategies refer to find out about learning. It means that learners learn how to learn with metacognitive strategies. By facilitating with knowing this language learning strategy, learners are getting in charge in thinking about the process of learning while they are planning, monitoring, and evaluating their own learning, for instance, pre tasks activities.

Holden in Serri et al. (2012) states that metacognitive strategies refer to the actions that learners use consciously while listening to a spoken text attentively. Metacognitive

strategies involve conscious management and regulation over learning process, like planning, concentrating and monitoring.

The awareness-raising activities at the metacognitive level helps learners achieve their learning goals. For instance, they become more skilled in the manipulation of linguistics input. it is also useful for allowing them to become independent learners of the language (Patricia and Hernández 2012). EFL learners that use metacognitive strategies and make decisions about whether to apply various strategies can develop and improve their performance employing in procedural knowledge. Thus, the procedural knowledge is like learners' plan, solve problems and evaluate their tasks and performance.

Post Listening F eedback

To encourage self-diagnosis, a post-listening feedback can be useful. Field (2008) states that “listening feedback can encourage learners to classify the problems that have been experienced (admittedly, this is not always an easy thing for them to do)”. It asks them (assisted by the tape script) to provide concrete examples of breakdowns of decoding or understanding, thus increasing their awareness of where their weaknesses lie. It also draws their attention to the various compensatory strategies that they use where decoding has failed. The other value of such feedback sheets is that they provide a further source of information for the instructor, who can then design remedial exercises in a more targeted way. Post listening feedback from learners supports the view that strategy training contributes usefully to a listening study. Their comments in questionnaire of feedback sheet suggest that it improves their confidence enables them to extract more from L2 input than they might otherwise.

METHODS

The research was designed quantitatively. Participants of the study were fourteen English Education students at Univesitas Muhammadiyah Semarang in academic year 2015/2016. The instruments for collecting data were Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) and a questionnaire of post listening feedback sheet.

Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ): This questionnaire consists of 21 randomly ordered items related to L2 listening comprehension. The items measure the perceived use of the strategies and processes underlying five factors related to the regulation of L2 listening comprehension. These five factors include Planning and Evaluation (how listeners prepare themselves for listening and evaluate the results of their listening efforts), Problem Solving (inferencing on what is not understood and monitoring those inferences), Directed Attention (how listeners concentrate, stay on task, and focus their listening efforts), Mental Translation (the ability to use mental translation parsimoniously), and Person Knowledge (learner perceptions concerning how they learn best, the difficulty presented by L2 listening, and their self-efficacy in L2 listening).

Post listening feedback sheet was used to know students’ difficulties of listening comprehension. It comprises three parts including overall recognition, problems in recognising words, and Problems with meaning.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The findings of post listening feedback sheet indicated that the difficulties confronted by the learners are recognizing sounds, recognizing words, guessing word meaning, recognizing grammar patterns, working out what the speaker’s means.

MALQ In general, It has 21 items, each is rated on a six-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree- 6=strongly agree). The results of MALQ can be seen as the table 1.

Sub-scale No. of items Mean Per subscale Problem solving

Planning and evaluation Directed attention Mental translation Person knowledge

6 5 4 3 4

4.4 3.7 3.7 35 2.6

MALQ 21 3.56

The table 1 indicates that students' manipulation of these strategies varies across different subscales, (problem solving, planning and evaluation, mental translation, person knowledge, and directed attention). Students' highest use of strategies was in association with problem solving with score 4.4. However, the scores of planning and evaluation, directed attention, mental translation, and person knowledge are on moderate level. Then, the lowest was associated with personal knowledge with score 2.6.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that the results can simply help instructors to find out the appropriate strategies and draw their attention to various information from students’ difficulties to help their students increase their listening ability to comprehend spoken English.

REFERENCES

Carrier, K.A. 2004. Listening: A Framework for Teaching across Differences. New York: Teachers College Press. Retrieved from: <Go to ISI>://WOS:000221257100012). Dirven, R. 1993. Listening in Language Learning. Journal of System, 21(2), pp. 264–68.

Retrieved from: http://jalt-publications.org/old_tlt/files/97/sep/nunan.html.

Field, J. 2008. Listening in the Language Classroom. UK, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Field, J. 2010. Listening in the Language Classroom. UK, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Patricia, S., and Barbosam, H. 2012. Applying a Metacognitive Model of Strategic Learning for Listening Comprehension by Means of Online-Based Activities, in A College Course. __________: Universidad de La Sabana.

Rahimi, M., and Maral, K. 2012. Metacognitive Listening Strategies Awareness in Learning English as Aforeign Language: A Comparison between University and High-School Students. Journal Procedia (Social and Behavioral Sciences), 31, pp. 82–89. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.020.

Ratebi, Z., and Zahra, A. 2013. The Use of Metacognitive Strategies in Listening Comprehension by Iranian University Students Majoring in English: A Comparison between High and Low Proficient Listeners. Journal of Studies in Education, 3(1), pp.

_____. Retrieved from:

http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jse/article/view/2969.

Serri, F., Aliakbar, J.B., and Akbar, H. 2012. Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Social/Affective Strategies in Listening Comprehension and Their Relationships with Individual Differences. Journal of Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(4), pp. 843–49. Vandergrift, L. 1999. Facilitating Second Language Comprehension: Acquiring Successful

EMPLOYING A TEACHER OF BAHASA INDONESIA IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING THROUGH CO-TEACHING APPROACH

Misbahudin

Misbahudin.Unigal.mizbach01@yahoo.co.id

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Teaching English as a foreign language has been an important issue in Indonesian education system. From time to time, the purpose and role of English among Indonesian society has been changed. English is not only learned for academic purposes, but also for general communication as an international language. Consequently, it is understandable when many studies aimed to get successful English language teaching and learning have been conducted.

Furthermore, English teachers are intended to be creative and innovative to improve their professionalism in teaching English. Teacher can also do the continuous relationship with other parties in gaining the meaningful and successful teaching and learning activity. Co-teaching is an alternative concept which can be applied in Co-teaching English in foreign language context.

Meanwhile, Indonesian language is the national language which is primarily used by Indonesian people, especially in academic activity. Sometimes, English teacher also use Indonesian language to teach English. Although the role of Indonesian language is as lingua franca among Indonesian ethnics, it will not be a mistake if we assumed that Indonesian language is a native language for Indonesian people.

Based on the above discussion, when Indonesian students learn English, they will always compare with what they have known in Indonesian language. Translation and inferring will be dominant activities when they learn and apply English in teaching and learning process, at least in the process of thinking. Indonesian language, which is positioned as a native language for students, will have great effect to the process of teaching and learning of English. Their competence in Indonesian language, we can consider it will positively contribute to the process of learning English. In contrast, when they are less competence in Indonesian language, it can also negatively contribute to their process of learning English.

From the explanation above, English teachers need to cooperate and collaborate with Indonesian language teacher (the teachers who teach Bahasa Indonesia) to improve students’ competence in English through the teaching and learning process. This paper will discuss the concept of co-teaching approach in teaching English with Indonesian language teacher as the co-teacher. The result of the discussion can be an alternative solution or even a new method for both language teachers.

The effect of native language on foreign language learning

Baron (2001: 65-67) states that native language of every learner is an extremely significant factor in acquisition of a new language. We can think of the native language as exercising and interfering effect on the target language. ɑlthough the majority of learners’ do some errors in producing the target language, the facilitating effects of the native language are surely powerful in the process so, even though they are less observable. Thus, the native language of learners exerts a strong influence on the acquisition of the target language system. While that the native system will exercise both facilitating and interfering effects on the production and comprehension of the new language, the interfering effect is likely to be the most prominent.

REFERENCES

Bernatek. Brad., Jeffrey Cohen, John Hanion, Matthew Wilka. (2012). Blended Learning in Practice. Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

Diamond. R, Robert. (2008). Designing and Assessing Courses and Curricula: A Practical Guide. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.

Fink., L.D. (2003). A Self-Directed Guide in Designing Courses for Significant Learning. Jossey Bass. San Francisco.

Saliba, Rankine, and Cortez .(2013). Fundamentals of Blended Learning. University of Western Sydney. Australia

MULTIMEDIA AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES: PROMOTING

YOUNG LEARNERS’

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Ratnawati, Didih Faridah, Luthfiyatun Thoyyibah Galuh University

Abstract

The main and crucial characteristic of young children is that they love to play. Multimedia is one of alternative ways that offers them some digital features to play by means of interactivity, attractiveness, and flexibility. Bringing multimedia into educational context, the determining of educational goals is also banned. For doing so, educators need to consider the selected materials to assist young children in developing their vocabularies. Through multimedia, young children can learn vocabulary in both visual and auditory ways so that and they learn vocabulary in attractive way. It provides them the picture, sounds, animation, and words. The processing of multimedia input happens inside young children’s memory. The multimedia inputs such as pictures and sounds will be accepted by their ears and eyes. Selecting words and pictures also run in children’s memory. Then, organizing process produces two forms: pictorial and verbal. Those two modes are

kept by children’s memory in a long-term memory. So, it promotes young children

in memorizing vocabularies in fun way without threatening young children. In short, multimedia is the best choice for promoting young children vocabulary development in the classroom context.

Key words: multimedia, young learners, and vocabulary development

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, multimedia is one of the alternative tools that can be applied by teachers in

improving learners’ vocabulary. Husty and ɛackson (β008:34) proposed that the use of software

can support learners’ vocabulary development. It means that multimedia, software, and information technology can be considered as the choices for teaching language to young learners. The consideration of applying multimedia in young learners’ classroom is building on the attractiveness and interactivity for learners. The attractiveness comes from performed display, pictures, sound, and animations. Meanwhile, the interactivity of multimedia happens between learners and multimedia which provide much information, answers, and exercises for learners.

THE GENERAL CONCEPT OF MULTIMEDIA

ɒasically, the term “multimedia” comprises two words, multi means having more than

one form, and media refers to the environment where the information is conveyed (Marmara University in Arkun and Akkoyonlu, 2008:3). In other words, multimedia can be defined as the digital integration of text, graphics, animation, audio, still images and motion video which provides individual users with high levels of control and interaction (Haddad, 2012:3). It can be said that multimedia is a tool which combines text, graphics, animation, audio, and so forth and

it gives chances to users for interacting and provides easiness to administrators or teachers in controlling. Similarly, Mayer (2001:5) describes that multimedia is an instructional materials which are containing words and pictures intended for the purpose to foster learning better. So, by using multimedia in the teaching and learning process, teachers can force the learners’ abilities and competences in fun way. Moreover, Beaty (2003:39) noted down the definition of multimedia down that it tends to integrate media types including text, images, sound, video and or animations. So, integrating several texts, images, sounds, and animation is into whole package that aims to develop certain product. In addition, multimedia allows for individualized learning, making learners’ active participants in the instruction learning process (Stemler, 1997:4). It means that the applying multimedia for learners, especially young learners can promote their autonomous in learning and active learners. By using it in learning process, they can be actively participated with the multimedia prepared and automatically they enable to accept more knowledge that conventional learning which only getting information from teachers.

Taking into account the definitions given above, in the most general meaning, multimedia is packaging text, picture, animation, and sound in a system. In other words, it allows the users to do multi-communication through interaction, listening, seeing, and reading, also speaking too. Bringing multimedia in a classroom context becomes trend recently, which main purpose to improve language learning better.

GENERAL CONCEPT OF YOUNG LEARNERS

If we are talking about young learners, it cannot be separated from their age. Learners are called young when they have ages before about fifteen years old. Thus, learners with age fifteen years old are assumed to be adulthood (Santrock,et al, 2007:42). Then, Paul (2003: 23) claimed that young learners in his book is addressed to learners which are attending primary school, whose their ages are six years old to the around eleven years old. It can be seen that young learners are one with aged six to eleven years old. Moreover, Reilly and Ward (2010:4) noted down that young learners, in their book have written very young learners refers to learners who have not started to attend to the compulsory school and still illiterate in both reading and writing. It can be stated that learners who are attending on the preschool which involve the learners from the ages four to six years old.In addition, Shin (2011:5) argued that young learners are divided into two parts namely very young learners and young learners themselves. The very young learners are addressed to them with under seven years old, while young learners which they from seven to twelve years old. So, the scopes of young learners are between the ages of zero or baby to twelve years old. In schooling, those standard ages cover the early childhood education and primary schools.

Beforehand, educators and teachers need to learn deeply about the characteristics of young learners in order to meet the learners’ needs and development, especially teaching English. Child’s caregivers and researchers proposed some common characteristics of young learners. Scott and Ytreberg (2003:2) noted down some majority characters young learners in learning that they with five to seven years old love to play and learn best when they are enjoy the activities, having low concentration and attention span, and they understand direct human interaction. In other words, educators need to apply the attractive and excited in presenting media, tools, and materials because of the consideration of characteristics of them in learning. For doing so, learners are unconsciously to gain the lesson from those attractive materials. Then, Cameron (2001:18) claimed that spoken language is the medium for learning new encountered words. They first learn new words through concrete object that linked to the concrete

vocabulary. It means that spoken language is developmentally appropriate medium for delivering materials for young learners. The realizations of using spoken language in the English classroom are through singing, imitating, and chunks’ drilling. Then, Reilly and Ward (2010:7) asserted that very young learners are curious about everything, fond of learning, and very receptive in gaining new knowledge. It can be said that they have big curiosity toward new things and excellent critical thinking for things that they do not know. They also adapt new knowledge and information quickly and memorize the gained knowledge and information in their minds in long time. Moreover, Bredekamp (2011:120) attached that early childhood education needs to apply plays or games effectively and integrate for its value. It means that through games or plays which are implemented in the teaching and learning process, learners gain the lessons which contain in games or plays. So, educators are not allowed to deliver materials deliberately because young children do not like to receive knowledge in unexpected way.

For supporting the previous statement, Badrova and Leong (2003:12) argued that a child who moves or prepares to attend the forthcoming study especially primary school is suitable for using games with rules. Here, children have to obey the prescribed rules from the games to achieve the goals of games. Those games can be likely sport or computer games. It means that children with five to six years old are suggested to use games with prescribed rules in order to grow learners’ awareness about rules, objectives, and procedures of games. Through those games, learners can practice and learn about things which are systematic, so they transform those values into others things or issues.

GENERAL CONCEPT OF VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Language development, especially vocabulary development is dominated by cognitive skills in its process. As it was claimed by Vigotsky in Santrock, et al (2007:46) that cognitive skills can be understood when they are developmentally interpreted and analyzed, they are realized through words, language, and form of discourse which represent as the psychological tool for transforming their mental activity, and this skill is originally used in the social context. It other words, cognitive skills reflect in the social context and needs language to perform them. Dealing with this assumption, he performed his unique assumption become a concept which is commonly called as Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the range of tasks that are too difficult for learners to master alone, but it can be learnt through guidance and assistance from adults or more skilled-children. It can be said that ZPD allows young learners are assisted by their teachers, parents, brothers and sister, and elder friends to accomplish their task. Since those assistances and guidance, learners got maximum knowledge and experiences in their life. Capturing out this concept into classroom and environment application that is providing meaningful, appropriate, and fun atmosphere is necessarily needed by the learners.

FINDINGS

Vocabulary Development of Young Learners

Vocabulary is one of some components of language. The vocabulary development is closely related to language development. Thus, one’s language development can be indicated by vocabulary development. Naturally, the learners or children master many vocabularies, but schooling, especially in the classroom, vocabulary is highly needed to be employed in order to

maximize their vocabulary development. Santrock, et al (2007:57) said that schooling is the best place for learning new word meanings. It can be claimed that the way for developing learners’ vocabulary is caregivers, parents, and teachers give the stimulus and provides facilities to

develop children’s ability is so called nurturing. The nurturing of vocabulary is not only in the

term of first language, but also second or even foreign language. During the life, the periods in which children have the very important periods are in the young age. Some experts signify this period as the golden age. As it is pointed out by Christ and Wang (2010:84) that the young age is the important period for learning word meanings which impact on the children reading comprehension and future success. Simplifying the above definitions, we conclude that they provided the description that if the learners do not know about the word meanings, they are unlikely to read text or story. As result, they enable to have low literacy achievement.

Due to the fact that vocabulary development is very significant in the early education, the teachers or educators need to know the learners’ nature and needs on its development within this period. As it is suggested by Christ and Wang (2010:85), there are some steps for developing vocabulary as the following:

(1) Young child needs exposure to new vocabulary

This way is very needed by educators or teachers in term they exposed the new words to learners in order to they acquire new words knowledge well and exposure the new words in different context in order to give other nuanced understanding of new words meaning. (2) Self- motivation and engagement

Envisaging learners’ motivation and engagement in the classroom is significantly important

for improving learners’ vocabulary development. Since they are interested in the new words, learners will memorize and use over time in their habitual activities.

(3) Multiple exposures to new words that give contextual and definitional information.

Giving new words exposures and different context will affect learners’ more understanding of words meaning so that it will give the deep understanding of the meaning of new words. (4) The use of independent word-learning strategies

Giving the clues and description is needed about the new words that are being learnt by learners. Then, learners’ have opportunity to infer the new words meaning in different context by themselves. If they can do it, they are exciting and memorize the words over the time.

Also, educators and teachers are significantly acquired to learn the language development in depth whether first, second or foreign language. They are demanded to know it because they will know what ways that is applied in their classroom depending on learners’ levels and needs. ɒy knowing the stages of learners’ language development, they also enable to decide what materials, and assessment for their learners.

CONCLUSION

Many ways emerged to involve learners’ during language classroom activities especially speaking class. This paper focused on realizing multimedia for developing learners’ vocabulary. The result shows that the learners’ vocabulary grew significantly after applying multimedia in real world communication. Based on the result of questionnaire, it also expressed that learners’ interest, comfortable, and pleasure develop apparently. It can be said that multimedia is crucial for teachers or researcher in their classroom setting. For doing so, it is also recommended that further studies in similar topic investigate of the problem of learners’ motivation.

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